Rae Templeton, Global E3: KU Leuven, Belgium Summer 2024
I primarily formed friendships with other international students while abroad. It was especially easy to make friends with fellow exchange students, though the majority of them came from within the EU as Erasmus students. There were several organizations on campus that made sure to facilitate different activities during orientation week and throughout the semester. The student organization of my faculty hosted, among other activities, an international potluck.
Pangaea, the international meeting spot and bar, was the place I spent the most time. Subsequently, I made most of my friends through Pangaea. This was not unrelated to my caffeine addiction. Pangaea offers free unlimited coffee and tea to members for the academic year with membership costing only 8 euros. It was not the place to be for coffee snobs, but got the job done and had a wide selection of teas and oat milk for vegans. I eventually had to start avoiding Pangaea during the exam period because I knew too many people there. It was easy to get distracted and pulled into conversations.
The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) also ended up being a good organization to make friends through. For clarification, Erasmus is the European equivalent of an exchange but only between EU member countries. However, they allow anyone to join and offer organized trips to a variety of Belgian cities as a few locations in nearby countries (ex. Amsterdam and Luxemburg). This was a great opportunity to connect with other students on exchange for the semester and explore different places in Belgium.
I also made friends by going out to one of the local bars, Blauwe Karter, for Monday night live music. A good chunk of the university community goes out for the live music nights with so many attendees that patrons spill out onto the road in front of the bar, which is not ideal considering that intersection boasts the most car accidents in the city.
I made friends with locals primarily though queer centered spaces, like UniQue the local queer event space which has board game nights and a variety of other activities. I also made friends with a fair amount of sociology and anthropology students who were Flemish. This is funny because I felt like a secret agent. They all assumed that I was in their faculty and then were incredibly confused when they found out I was doing my exchange with the Bioscience Engineering Faculty.
Overall, there was a different overall culture when it comes to interacting with people. I am a big fan of smiling at people on the street and asking if I can pet people’s dogs. In the US, I am a pro at this. In the US, I’ve ended up having hour long conversations with folks and gotten tackled by a husky at a café counter, truly living the dream. In Belgium, you do not smile at people on the street. It freaks them out. They are also uncomfortable if you ask them if you can pet their dogs. However, it’s just much less of a social norm. Plenty of people were surprised but happy when I asked, since it helped them to better socialize their dogs to crowded environments. Also, these rules go completely out the window when you’re hiking. If you don’t say “hi” on hiking trails, you are committing a faux pas. All in all, people can usually tell that you’re a foreigner and are forgiving of that fact. I never had a goal of blending in completely while abroad, so this was just fine with me.
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